Yy^ 




ADDITIONAL NOTES ON ARROW 
RELEASE 



By EDWARD S. MORSE 




PEABODY MUSEUM 

Salem, Massachusetts 

1922 




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Transf'grr@4 from 
OCT 17 1911 



ADDITIONAL NOTES ON ARROW 
RELEASE 



.^w 



By EDWARD ^ MORSE 




PEABODY MUSEUM 

Salem, Massachusetts 
1922 






printed by 
113 Market St., Lynn, Mass. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES ON ARROW RELEASE 



Edward S. Morse 



In 1885 I published, in the Proceedings of the Essex Institute, a 
paper entitled ''Ancient and Modern Methods of Arrow Release." 
From the difficulty I found in ascertaining the various attitudes of the 
hand in drawing the bow I began to realize that no one had made a 
study of the subject and that I had made a discovery. Prof. E. B. 
Tylor, the distinguised author of ''Prehistoric Times," in acknowledg- 
ing the receipt of a copy of my paper, wrote me as follows: " It is won- 
derful how much there is to be learned by close examination into points 
that at first sight do not seem as if they wanted any. I had no idea 
till I looked at your sketches that there were systematic differences 
among peoples in their way of discharging their arrows."* The main 
facts, with their illustrations, quickly appeared in Russian, German, 
Dutch and French reviews and were republished in England and start- 
ed a number of investigators on the subject. In the Memoir, which 
has been out of print for some years I asked for information on the 
subject particularly concerning savage people, as I regarded my work 
as only a preliminary outline of the subject. As a result of this appeal 



*In the Badminton Library. Archery, C. J. Longman, Esq., says (p. 76) "In 
discussing methods of drawing the bow occasion will frequently arise to refer to the 
pamphlet by Prof. Morse, as he was the first to investigate the subject. His researches 
on a seemingly trivial matter have a high ethnographic interest, and his classification 
is so sound that it must form the basis of any further researches on the subject." 



I received many items and sketches from all parts of the world and 
now, nearly thirty-five years after, I have compiled this information 
and the present paper is the result. 

Before proceeding further I venture at this point to republish a 
few figures illustrating the five forms of arrow release f given in my first 
paper on the subject which has long been out of print. 




PRIMARY RELEASE 

Fig. 1 

I found the simplest form of release was that which the children 
of all nations use the world over: that is in grasping the arrow with 
the thumb and bent forefinger. I have seen the children of Ameri- 
cans, Indians, Chinese, Japanese and Negroes play with a toy bow and 
arrow and they all invariably grasp the arrow with the thumb and 
bent forefinger. It was interesting to discover that some of the lower 
savage races, like the Ainu, practice this release. The arrow accom- 
panying this release is generally knobbed at the nock end and is 
gashed or roughened to secure a firmer pinch on the arrow. This I 
termed the primary release. 



fThe English archer prefers the word "loope" to release. Release seems to me 
a better word for we release a prisoner; we speak of a loose button, a loose hinge, some- 
thing that is still there, like a loose tooth. 




SECONDARY RELEASE 

Fig. 2 

In another and higher group of savages such as the Pueblo Ind- 
ians, the arrow is not only grasped by the thumb and bent fore- 
finger but the second and third fingers are brought to bear upon the 
string, thus enabling the archer to use a stronger bow. This I termed 
the secondary release. 




TERTIARY RELEASE 

Fig. 3 

A third form of release I determined through the courtesy of 
Mr. Le Flesche, an educated Omaha Indian. This release con- 
sisted in holding the forefinger nearly straight and not bent as in 
the primary and secondary releases and with the tips of this finger 
and the tips of the second and third fingers pulling the string, the 
arrow being held between the tips of the thumb and forefinger. This 



form I termed the tertiary release and found it wide spread. From 
the testimony of Lieut. Vogdes, U. S. A. and Col. James Ste- 
phenson, this was the form of release used by the Sioux, Arapahoes, 
Cheyennes, Assiniboins, Comanches, Blackfeet and Navahoes and 
doubtless other North American tribes. 

C. J. Longman, Esq., in his interesting and valuable contribu- 
tions to the Archery volume of the Badminton Library Series, does 
not recognize this release and classifies it with the secondary form 
and says, '*It seems doubtful, however whether there is sufficient 
distinction between the secondary and tertiary looses to justify their 
separation, and all finger and thumb looses, when the tips of the fin- 
gers assist in drawing the string will be classed here as secondary." 
I cannot agree with my distinguished friend, for further study shows 
that it is a marked North American method. A study of West Coast 
Indians, Mexican tribes, Surinam Indians, and even the figures in 
ancient Mexican codices, tracings of which I have received from that 
eminent scholar Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, convinces me that the tertiary 
release was employed by these ancient people. It is found sporadically 
in other parts of the world. 




MEDITERRANEAN RELEASE 

Fig. 4 

The archers of Europe shooting only for sport use a release that 
I have named the Mediterranean release because I discovered that 



the Mediterranean nations — the Caucasians of Blumenbach — for 
nearly 2000 years have used this release.* Even the ancient relatives 
of this race, the Hill tribes of India, practice it. It consists in draw- 
ing the string with the tips of the first, second and third fingers; the 
thumb is inert and the little finger is rarely used. Pictures and en- 
gravings of the 17th century and before depict the archer as using 
the first and second finger only. This indicates either greater 
strength or a lighter bow. This release, as practiced today requires 
either a glove or finger tips of leather to protect the ends of the 
fingers. 




MONGOLIAN RELEASE 

Fig. 5 

The Asiatic races employ a method far removed from those 
forms already mentioned. The string is drawn back by the thumb 
which is sharply bent over it, while the forefinger is bent over the tip 
of the thumb to aid in holding it. The arrow is held in the junction 
of the forefinger and thumb. This method of release necessitates 



*Harold H. Bender, Professor of Indo-Germanic Philology at Princeton Uni- 
versity has lately published an extremely illuminating book, entitled "The Home of 
the Indo-European." He gives good reasons for believing that the term Indo- 
European is preferable to that of Aryan or Mediterranean. The term Caucasian cf 
Blumenbach is, of course, nearly obsolete. 



the wearing of a stout thumb-ring made of bone, horn, jade or metal, 
the edge of the ring engaging the string. All the Asiatic races with- 
out exception use this realese; the Mongols, Manchus, Tibetans, Ko- 
reans and Turks use this release with various forms of thum.b rings, 
the Japanese using a glove with a grooved thumb. Even the Per- 
sians, who are not Mongoloid, have acquired this release from being 
interposed between Mongoloid people on the east and west. 

In attempting to make out from ancient drawings, such as those 
on Greek vases, the attitude of the hand in drawing the bow the great 
difficulty arises from the fact that in many cases the artist was not 
an archer, and, furthermore, so long as the bow was stretched no atten- 
tion was paid to the attitude of the hand in stretching it. When I 
began the study I was amazed at the inability of travelers to recall 
the method of arrow release, though they admitted they had seen 
the savages shoot a hundred times. I recall a striking illustration 
of this in the case of my friend, Frank Hamilton Gushing, who had 
lived among the Zuni Indians for several years. He brought to Bos- 
ton many years ago a number of Zuni Indians who were hospitably 
entertained by Mrs. Mary Hemenway at her summer home in Man- 
chester. I was invited to spend the day with them. I asked Mr. 
Gushing the method the Zuni used in shooting the arrow. He 
looked at me vaguely and said, **Why, I have shot with them a thou- 
sand times, isn't it this way?" pushing a lead pencil between the thumb 
and bent forefinger. I told him that was the lowest form of release 
and as the Zuni are Pueblo Indians I thought they must use the second- 
ary release, that is beside the thumb and bent forefinger on the arrow, 
the second and third finger assisted in drawing the string. He imme- 
diately constructed a bow from a stick, made a rude arrow, strung the 
stick and invited one of the chiefs to illustrate the Zuni method of 
drawing the bow. We eagerly watched the hand as he drew the 
string and the attitude of his fingers was precisely as I had predicted. 
Mr. Gushing gave me a hearty slap on the shoulder while ejaculating 
**Spl — endid!" Nowhere was an acute observer who had lived 
and shot with the Zuni and yet had failed to observe the simple atti- 

6 



tude of the hand in shooting. What must it have been with the 
ancient artists and sculptors, many of whom had never shot an arrow ! 
The infinite variety of drawings on Greek vases of archers drawing 
the bow is sufficient evidence of their incompetency in regard to por- 
traying the attitude of the hand in archery. In ancient rock sculpture 
the wear and tear of age render the details indistinct, the position 
of the fingers on the bow string is often obscure. These conditions 
coupled with the inaccuracy of the sculptor render these details unre- 
liable. The general attitude of the hand, however, can be recognized. 
In all the releases except the Mongolian the attitude of the hand as a 
whole can usually be seen and it assumes the form of a more or less 
closed fist. In the Mongolian release, however, the attitude of the 
hand is with fingers bending downward at right angles to the back of 
the hand which is uppermost. 

In my first memoir I expressed the belief that the different releases 
characterized different races and that is more or less true. I find 
that these lines are not hard and fast, however, as I had at first sup- 
posed but that here and there savage people the world over practice 
a release which I associated with the higher races, namely, the Mediter- 
ranean. Even the Mongolian release, the most exclusive of them 
all, is found in Africa in which not only the thumb -ring is used but 
also an extraordinary device in the form of a yoke of wood grasped 
in the hand and first described by Dr. Felix von Luschan. Further 
reference to his discovery will be made. 

In my first paper I tried in vain to find the method of release 
among the Indians who were common in New England in the early 
part of the seventeenth century. I had secured the Penobscot and 
Micmac release and this was the primary form. In 1865 the Prince 
Society of Boston reproduced a rare book entitled *' Wood's New- 
England's Prospect," by William Wood, published in London in 1634, 
copies of which are of great rarity. In the Prince Society reproduction 
the quaint and original spelling is carefully preserved. William Wood 
was evidently a gentleman and a scholar, Latin phrases often occur. 
The author was a keen observer. He notices what few travelers do. 



the attitude of the hand of the savage in drawing the bow. The fol- 
lowing extract describes very clearly that the Indians in New England 
employed the primary release. ''For their shooting they be most 
desperate marksmen for a point blancke object, and if it may bee possible 
Cornicum oculos configere they will doe it: such is their celerity and 
dexterity in Artillerie, that they can smite the swift running Hinde 
and nimble winked Pigeon without a standing pause or left eyed 
blinking; they draw their Arrowes between the forefingers and the 
thumbe; their bowes be quicke, but not very strong, not killing above 
six or seven score", (p. 97) 





Fig. 6 Micmac 

I am indebted to Dr. S. J. Mixter for a photograph of a Micmac 
Indian who illustrated to him the method of drawing the arrow. It 
shows the typical primary release. (Fig. 6.) The Indian was one of 
the oldest Micmacs in the Cascapedia settlement in Canada. He 

8 



told Dr. Mixter that other tribes in Canada used the same method 
and he knew of no other. • These facts I mentioned in my first paper 
but. the figure which was not pubhshed at that time is now given. 
In a supplement to the International Archieves of Ethnology, 
Vol. XVII, is a memoir by Dr. C. H. DeGoeje, on the ** Ethnology 
of The Surinam Indians." A large number of arrows are figured 
and these have a raised ring of fibre at their nock ends indicating the 
primary release. 




/ J 

Fig. 7 Tierra del Fuego 

The Ona tribe of Tierra del Fuego practiced the primary release 
and also the tertiary release as show in the illustrations of these sav- 
ages in a book entitled, ** Through the First Antarctic Night", by 
Frederick A. Cook, M. D. Figure 7 is a rough copy of one of the 
illustrations in the book. 



In the British Museum is an arrow from Tierra Del Fuego, col- 
lected by Mr. H. N. Moseley in 1876. This arrow is 27K inches 
long. It has two short and wide barbs parallel to the nock. A shoulder 
of fibre and gum near the nock would indicate the primary release. 
(Fig. 8.) 



^ ] y9*«j-~»»jv. 




Fig. 8 Tierra del Fuego 



From photographs shown me at the Hamburg Museum of natives 
of the Solomon Islands in the act of shooting the method of release was 
primary. 

At the Paris Exposition of 1889 were many negroes from the 
French Protectorates, Africa. Among these were negroes from Sene- 
gal and from them I got their method of release which was primary, 
the tow was held nearly horizontal. 

In Sir Samuel Baker's book, "Albert Nyanza," Page 63, is the fol- 
lowing description of the archery of the Africans of that region. ** Fort- 
unately the natives are bad archers the string is never drawn 

with the two forefingers as in most countries, but is simply pulled by 
holding the arrow between the middle joint of the forefinger and 
thumb." This clear description indicates the primary release. 

I am greatly indebted to Mr. Kimpei Otsu, Chief of the Aboriginal 
Bureau of Formosa and to Mr. S. Ishii, of Kaihoku, of Formosa, 
for a number of interesting photographs representing the savages of 
that Island in the act of drawing the bow. Seven of these photo- 
graphs represent members of the Vonum tribe of various villages. 

10 



These are indicated as domesticated savages, all of these but one 
are using the primary release. (Fig. 9.) The one exception is draw- 
ing the arrow with the left hand and all four fingers are bent over the 
sjtring suggesting a modification of the tertiary release. Two others 
are marked head-hunters belonging to the Taiyal, or tattooed tribe. 
These are also practicing the primary release. 




Fig. 9 Formosa 

In the Trocadero Museum, in Paris, is a curious arrow from 
Formosa made by the savage Botans. The nock end is cut in long 



11 



shallow gashes giving a firmer grip of the thumb and forefinger. This 
form indicates the use of the primary release. (Fig. 10.) 

In using the primary release, as I have already shown, the arrow 
is usually knobbed or the nock end of the arrow where the thumb 

and finger grasp it is roughened by 
slight cuts, or gashes to ensure a 
stronger hold on the arrow. 

In studying the remarkable 
collection of Danish antiquities in 
the Museum of Northern Antiqui- 
Fig. 10 Formosa ties, at Copenhagen, we found an 

exhaustive collection of objects from the peat bogs of Denmark. So 
abundant are these remains that Steenstrup estimated that every 
column of peat, three feet square at the surface, would yield some 
evidence of human workmanship. In the collection were a number 
of long bows, round in section, with a slight notch at either end. These 
bows with their arrows were mounted on tablets and were believed 
to be about 2000 years old. The arrows were of special interest, 
they were rather thick and clumsily made but the constriction of 




(A 






Fig. 11 Peat bogs, Denmark 

the shaft before reaching the nock end was very noticeable. Of 
great interest to m.e was the fact that every arrow was distinctly 
knobbed and enlarged at the nock end, (Fig. 11) showing that these 
ancient people had not acquired the Mediterranean release which 
would have been difficult with this form of arrow. They were using 
the primary release of their savage ancestors. Mr. Vilhelm Boye, 



12 



an officer of the Museum, told me that the arrows had only two barbs. 
No trace of the barbs were seen, though a close examination with 
the poor light at the time showed that the nock end of the arrow had 
been wound with a fibre of some kind. 

At the Kiel Museum there was a fine collection of peat bog relics 
from Schleswig. Here also I was permitted to make sketches of arrows, 

all of which showed the same enlarge- 
ment of the nock end, though quite 
different in shape from the Danish forms, 
indicating the same method of release, 
namely, the primary. (Fig 12.) Their 
age dated from 217 A. D., as determined 
Fig. 12 Schleswig by coins associated with them. 
In Figure 13, I give rough tracings of the nock ends of the arrows 
of various tribes of North American Indians, all showing enlarge- 
ment of the nock ends of the arrows, indicating the use of the primary 
release. In some cases the knobbed arrow might indicate the use 
of the secondary release but in that release with the use of two extra 





R '/\i 




lA 



[/Vi 



Fig. 13 North American Indians 



fingers in pulling the bow the enlargement of the arrow was not so 
necessary. 

Figure 14 illustrates in a marked degree the use of the primary 
release. It represents an arrow used by the Thlingit tribe of Alaska. 
It was collected by Lieut. G. T. Emmons, U. S. A. and is in the col- 
lection of the U. S. National Museum. It is interesting as showing 
that these people in close proximity to the Eskimo who used the Medi- 



13 



terranean release had never acquired the more powerful form but 
retained the primary form. A parallel case is shown by the Ainu 
method of drawing the bow. Though associated with the Japanese 
for nearly 2000 years they had never acquired the more effective 
Mongolian release but adhered to the primary form. 



<^M^ 




Fig. 14 Alaska 

Prof. E. N. Horsford informed me that when he was a boy his 
father was a missionary among the Seneca Indians in New York. 
He often played and shot with the Indian boys, the target generally 
consisting of a big copper cent held in a cleft stick. The practice 
of drawing the bow was with the thumb and bent forefinger pinching 
the arrow and two other fingers assisting in drawing the string, a 
distinct secondary release. 

Lieut. Schawatka, an arctic explorer, who had traveled in 
Mexico told me that the Baramos Indians, a tribe of the Tarahumari, 
living in southwestern Chihuahua practiced the secondary release. 

The Menomini Indians who now live on their reservation in 
north central Wisconsin have been minutely studied by Mr. Alanson 
Skinner and the results form a monograph in the publications of the 
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. The Indians are 
typical Algonquin people and Mr. Skinner states that they use the 
tertiary release while the neighboring Ojibwa use the primary and 
secondary releases. 

14 



In an interesting article by Carl Lumholtz, in Scribnefs Maga- 
zine, Vol. XIV, 1894, entitled ''Tarahumari Dances and Plant Wor- 
ship," he gives a picture of an Indian using the bow. The method of 
release is clearly depicted and represents the tertiary release. Tracings 
of figures in certain ancient Mexican codices sent me by Mrs. Zelia 
NUTTALL represent the tertiary release. 

Prof. W. Joest, of Berlin, kindly sent me some observations he 
made regarding the arrow release of indians and bush negroes of Sur- 
inam. In his letter he makes the distinction between the Arawaks, 
Caribs, and Galibes of the coast and interior of Surinam and of the Upper 
Maroni which he calls indians, and the inhabitants of Surinam and the 
Upper Maroni which he designates as bush negroes. They no longer use 
arrows and bows as weapons, but only for shooting fish, small deer, 
turtle, tapir, birds, etc. He says: '' I observed a remarkable difference 
between Indians and 'Bosch.' The American aborigine, Arawaks, as 
well as Caribs, keep the bow horizontally, the 'Bosch,' whose ances- 
tors were imported from Africa, vertically. Both put the arrow at 
the upper or left side of the bow; both keep the arrow steady with the 
forefinger of the left hand, the palm of course undermost. The way 
of pulling corresponds to your 'tertiary release' with the difference 
that Indians and Bush negroes use all their four fingers while the 
thumb (stretched) helps the forefinger. The forefinger is nearly 
straight. I had the impression that the forefinger and thumb were 
only keeping the arrow in its position whilst the 3rd, 4th and 5th fingers 
were really pulling." He found an astonishing number of the Bush 
negroes were left-handed. They accordingly put the arrow at the 
right side of the bow. He thinks no difference exists between the 
natives of Guyara in the method of release. 

Dr. Thomas Barbour, in his travels in New Guinea, secured a 
photograph of a Papuan in the act of shooting the bow. The release 
is with the thumb pressed against the arrow and all fourBngers bearing 
on the string, the arrow being between the thumb and forefinger. 
This represents the tertiary release. This release varies as does the 
Mediterranean form. In both releases two, three and even four 

15 



fingers may be used in drawing the string, though rarely is the Httle 
finger used. (Fig. 15). 

Felix Speiser in his *'Two Years with the Natives in the Western 
Pacific" represents the arrow release of the natives of Santa Cruz, an 
island between the Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides. Figures 
of two men are given in the act of drawing the bow, the attitude of the 
fingers on the string is given in the clearest manner and represents the 
tertiary release. The middle finger is slightly overlapping the fore- 
finger. 




Fig. 15 Papuan 



From a photograph in the Ethnological Museum at Berlin 1 
copied the arrow release of the Kaders of India. The Kaders are a 
primitive tribe living among the Animali Hills, north of Tiruwanduram 
on the western side of India. It resembles somewhat the release of 
the Bakuba and Basonge people of Africa brcTught back by Lieut. 
WissMANN. The four fingers are over the string, the forefinger slightly 
flexed and pressing the arrow against the bow, the thumb inactive. 
It must be classed with the tertiary release. (Fig. 16.) The Kaders 
used a heavy bow, the arrows are iron-pointed and four-barbed. 

16 



Prof. F. W. Williams, of Yale, when he was in Rangoon, Burma, 
sent me a postal card on which was depicted an archer shooting a 
bow, the forefinger was extended along the arrow while the other three 
fingers were flexed over the string. It may be regarded as a slight 
modification of the tertiary release. Mr. Williams writes: ''Here 
is an arrow release that appears to be the real thing, but I have yet 
to see one of the natives shoot. The picture is lettered '* A Burmese 
Villager." 

Dr. Karl von den Steinen, 
in his work on *'The Savages of 
Central Brazil" says; (p. 230) 
**The bow is generally held down- 
ward. The arrow lies to the left 
of the bow. It is held by the 
second and third fingers, while the 
fourth and fifth fingers help to 
steady the cord for the aim, the 
thumb is not used at all. This 





Fig. 16 Kader, India 



way of holding the bow and arrow which is used in the Middle Sea, of 
which E. S. Morse speaks is different from that of the Bororo. Any 
contrivance to keep the fingers from being rubbed by the cord 
is not used. The left hand which holds the bow can hold a number 
of arrows in reserve." The release is typically tertiary. (Fig. 17). 
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Steinen and he told me that he 
explored a new region in Brazil which had never reached the Age of 
Iron. 

At the Ethnological Museum, in Amsterdam, I learned that the 
Javanese practice the tertiary release using the index finger only, a 
weak method and implying the use of the lightest of bows. The 
nock of the arrow is very deep and narrow indicating a light string. 
The bow had a heavy thickening in the middle, deeply grooved for 
four fingers, and was covered with black velvet; an effeminate bow 
and probably used by women. In the Copenhagen Museum I saw 
an arrow from Java with nock shallow and flaring. 

17 



In 1889 I met at the Ethnological Museum in BerUn, Lieut. 
WissMANN and Dr. Ludwig Wolf, recently returned from the interior 
of Africa with valuable collections of ethnological material and they 
assured me that the Bakuba people and the Basonge people, in Cen- 
tral Africa used a release, which rep«-esented a slight modification of 
the tertiary release. The bow is held vertical, the forefinger presses 




Fig. 17 Bororo, Brazil 

the arrow against the bow, the arrow being on the right side of the 
bow. The bow is strong and the arrow beautifully made having 
three barbs. Lieut. Wissmann told me that in shooting, the archer 
first points the arrow to the ground in drawing, and then quickly 
raises and discharges it. The Baluba tribe in Africa uses the Medi- 
terranean release, two-fingered. The bow resembles that of the 
ancient Egyptian. 

18 



It would be an interesting path of inquiry to trace the origin 
of the Mediterranean release. Did it first arise among the Aryan 
people in Central Asia and if so was the release transmitted to the 
Eskimo? It is a curious fact that the Eskimo savages ranging from 
the east to the west coasts of North America practice the Mediterranean 
release to the exclusion of all other forms. The Mediterranean release 
occurs sporadically the world over. Furthermore the Eskimo are 
the only people who have ever devised a special form of arrow, flattened 
at the nock end to more easily facilitate the discharge of the arrow, 
it would be almost impossible to use this form of arrow in other releases. 
We have seen that in prehistoric times the Danes and the inhabitants 
of Schleswig practiced the primary release and probably the method of 
other European races. Mr. John Murdock, who made an ethnologi- 
cal journey to Point Barrow in Alaska, and lived with the Eskimo for 
two years believed in Scandinavian influences among the Eskimo. 
In a letter to me he says, ''You are quite at liberty to allude to my 
ideas of Scandinavian influence among the Eskimo. I have not studied 
up the the Scandinavian side of the question thoroughly enough to 
make any formal statement on the subject." Mr. Murdock gave' 
particular attention to Eskimo arts and customs in a report pub- 
lished by the Smithsonian Institution. In this report he is strongly 
inclined to the belief that several customs extending from Greenland 
to and across Bering Straits are derived from Scandinavian colonists 
in Greenland. These are ''the method of arrow release, the size of 
the oars as well as paddles, a custom as far as I know, unparalleled 
among savages, and the method of slinging the oar in thongs instead 
of using rowlocks. The sail of the Umiak is also strikingly like those 
in the Norse ships." 

We have seen that the early Scandinavian release was primary, 
is it unreasonable to suggest that the Mediterranean release may have 
been first practiced by the Eskimo and from this race the races to the 
south acquired it? If in paleochrystic ice or prehistoric Eskimo 
deposits we could find the flattened nock end of an arrow it might set- 
tle the question. 

19 




Fig. 18 Seri Gulf of California 



20 



It is a curious fact that the release universally practiced by the 
Mediterranean nations, and a release which I thought was associated 
with the higher races is also seen among the lowest savage races today, 
namely, the Andaman Islanders, the Pygmy negritos of the Philippine 
Islands, the Veddahs of Ceylon, the Botocudo Indians of Brazil and 
other low savage peoples. 

On an island in the Gulf 
of California is found the 
remnant of a tribe known as 
the Seri Indians. A volum- 
inous report of these Indians 
was published in the 17th 
( ^ ''^^^'"^^i^s^'^'^^^--^^^^^-^ Annual Report of the U. S. 

Bureau of Ethnology, by Dr. 
Wm. McGee. Major Pow- 
ell, as Chief of the Bureau, 
in an introductory note to 
the Report says, ''Among 
these aborigines known to 
Caucasians the Seri Indians 
appear to stand nearly or 
Fig. 19 Apache q^ite at the bottom of the 

scale. They are without agricultural or other organized industries: 
they still haunt their primeval shorelands, and their fisheries are crude 
and simple, while their water-craft (in which their culture culminates) 
are practically individual in design, manufacture and function; and 
their social organization is of peculiarly significant simplicity." In 
this report one figure is given of a Seri warrior in the attitude of shoot- 
ing the bow. A perfect Mediterranean release is shown. (Fig. 18). 

Dr. Ten Kate sent me a photograph of an Apache warrior from 
San Carlos, Arizona. He is in the act of shooting the bow. (Fig. 19). 
The release is clearly Mediterranean using three fingers. 

Dr. Bovallius, of Stockholm, described to me a release which 
may have been identical to that described by Dr. Steinen, namely, 




21 



a two-fingered Mediterranean. This was practiced by a tribe of 
Indians on the south-eastern coast of Costa Rica known as the Tala- 
manca Indians, Bribri tribe. He was sure of the release as he had 
often shot with them. They use this release in shooting fish in the water. 
The arrow is six feet long and without barbs, and is held between the 
tips of the first and second fingers, the thumb is held at the butt of 
the arrow which is truncate. The end of the arrow is slightly thickened 
with gum and cord so as to give a firmer hold. The bow is held nearly 
horizontal. (Fig. 20). Despite the statement of Dr. Bovallius as to 




Fig. 20 Brii>ri 

the method of release of the Talamanca Indians we find in the National 
Geographic Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 2, an article by Paul B. Popenoe, 
on Costa Rica in which is given a picture of these Indians. In some 
respects the picture agrees with Dr. Bovallius' statements; the arrows 
are six feet long, they are evidently shooting fish but the attitude of the 
hand in all three indicates the tertiary release. 

At Manchester, England, I met a traveler, whose name I have 
misplaced, who told me he had been among the Botocudo Indians of 
Brazil, and he had observed that in using the bow they drew it with 
two fingers on the cord, which indicated the Mediterranean release. 

22 



William Jno. Steains, employed by an English firm in construct- 
ing a railway in Brazil undertook, at his own expense, the exploration 
of the Rio Doce and its tributaries. This valley is inhabited by 
wild Botucudo Indians. These Indians practice the Mediterranean 
release using two fingers unless the bow is very stiff when three fingers 
are used. 

In Strutts ''Sports and Pastimes" there is the figure of an archer 
copied from Saxon Manuscript of the eighth century. The release 
shows three fingers on the string with the arrow between the first and 
second fingers, indicating a typical Mediterranean release. Usually 
the figures of ancient archers show only two fingers. 

Mrs. Clement Waters sent me a photograph of the bronze 
doors of the famous cathedral at Amalfi. These doors were made 
in Constantinople in 1075 A. D. Among the paneled figures is an 
archer plainly showing the Mediterranean release and probably show- 
ing the use of the two fingers. The figures are very archaic. The 
designs were evidently made by one who was not a Turk as the Turks 
practice the Mongolian release. 

In a famous psalter executed by Geoffrey Lonterell, in 1345, 
the figure of an archer is given shooting at a target, the Mediterra- 
nean release is clearly shown. Three fingers are used instead of two 
as in most of the figures over two hundred years old. 

In the Royal Art Museum, Berlin, are a number of ancient Greek 
vases, red on black, on which an archer is shown using the typical 
Mediterranean release. In the same Museum is a bronze statue of 
Eros bracing the bow in English style. The bow being short the 
lower end rests against the knee instead of the foot. 

In the Museum of St. Germain, near Paris, is a remarkable replica 
of Trajan's Column, in this the Dacians are shown using the Mediter- 
ranean release, two fingered. In many of the figures represented the 
bow is very short. 

Realizing that the aboriginal tribes of India were Aryan in origin 
it was most important to ascertain the methods of archery among 
the savage tribes in the interior. An East Indian officer, Capt. 

23 



John Johnstone, visiting Boston, promised to secure for me, through 
a brother officer, the method of arrow release of primitive tribes inhab- 
iting the region in which he was stationed. Some months after Capt. 
Johnstone's departure I got a letter from him, accompanied by the 
clearest drawings showing the arrow release among the native tribes. 
The following is an extract, **I asked a friend of mine, Capt. Luard, 
who is compiling the Gazeteer of Central India to have some sketches 
prepared for me for transmission to you and he has sent those I en- 
close, together with two photographs. I hope they will be of some 
use to you. The Bhils (pronounced Bheels) are among the most 
primitive tribes of Central India and are looked upon as aborigines. 
They do not admit themselves to be Hindus, though when brought 
into close contact with the latter they are apt to adopt many Hindu 
customs and deities. They still use bows and arrows in their native 
haunts chiefly against wild beasts, but occasionally against each 
other." The following figure (Fig. 21) is a reduced reproduction of 
one of the drawings. The release is an absolutely perfect Mediter- 
ranean with two fingers. 

In a collection of photographs published by the London Indian 
Museum in 1868, entitled "The People of India." Vol. 1, Plate 21, is 
shown a native of the Korwa group from Chola Nagpoor and regarded 
as an aborigine; the release is typically Mediterranean. 

Edward Tuite Dalton, in a work entitled ''Descriptive Ethnolo- 
gy of Bengal," figures a number of the Korwas shooting with a bow. 
These people are considered one of the wildest of the Kolarian tribes. 
The arrow release is clearly shown and it is distinctly Mediterranean. 
The Korwas are found in the hills rising in the Sirguja and Jaspur 
Estates in the Province of Shutia, Nagpur. 

Edward Horace Mann, Esq., in his work "On the Aboriginal 
Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands"* says, " It is a singular fact that 
the mode in which the tribes of Great Andaman discharge their arrows 
differs from that in vogue among the Jar'awa. While the latter are 



^Reprinted from the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and 
Ireland. 

24 




Fig. 21 Bhil, India 



25 



said to adopt the plan usual among ourselves of holding the nock of 
the arrow inside the string by means of the middle joints of the fore 
and middle fingers and drawing the string with the same joints, it is 
the practice among the former to place the arrows in position between 
the thumb and the top joint of the forefinger and to draw the string 
to the mouth with the middle and third fingers." The Jar'awa then 
practice the Mediterranean release while the others practice the second" 
ary release. As an illustration of the instability of arrow release among 




Fig. 22 Andaman 

savages, I refer to the archery number of the Badminton series in which 
Mr. Longman presents some reproductions of photographs taken by 
Mr. M. V. PoRTMAN from his unpublished notes. These I have 
copied, (Fig. 22) and they represent in turn the primary, a modifica- 
tion of the tertiary, Mediterranean and Mongolian, and the one de- 
scribed above is certainly secondary. It may be of interest to remark 
that here is one of the lowest savage groups of people, the only pure 
negrito people existing, so Mr. Portman says, so low that they are in 

26 



an amorphous condition regarding archery. A crooked wooden stave 
for a bow, arrows without barbs and, according to Mr. Portman, who 
Hved among them for fourteen years, the poorest shots imaginable 




Fig. 23 Inge, Little Andaman 

and yet presenting examples of the five pronounced releases known. 
They are in such an embryonic condition that they have not yet 
established a permanent release. The Onge Tribe inhabiting the Little 
Andaman practice the Mediterranean release (Fig. 23). 

In the third volume of RatzeVs History of Mankind, page 356, is 
an illustration of a Veddah of Ceylon in the act of shooting the bow. 

27 



The photograph from which it was derived was made by Emil Schmidt 

of Leipsic. The release is Mediterranean, three fingered. (Fig. 24). 

At the St. Louis Fair I saw members of a tribe called Bagoba from 

the Philippines. One of them shot for me and he used the primary 




Fig. 24 Veddah 



F g. 25 Negrito 



release. The arrows were not feathered and their flight was^crooked. 
A negrito child among them, 19 months old, shot for me in the most 
vigorous manner. He used the tertiary release with thumb on the 
string, the bow held vertical. (Fig. 25). 



28 



Mr. Verner, at the St. Louis Fair had charge of a number of 
pygmies from the Philippines. A number of the tribe known as 
Chiri shot for me using the Mediterranean release. (Fig. 26. See 
frontispiece.) The best shots among them used the tertiary release. 

In the Ethnological Museum at Dresden I copied from a photo- 
graph an Aeta (Negrito) from Cagayan, Northern Luzon, in the 
act of shooting and he used a typical Mediterranean release. (Fig 27). 

In the Smithsonian Annual Report for 1899 (p. 540) is a picture 
of a Negrito from the Province of Maravale, Luzon. The release 
shown is Mediterranean. 




Fig. 27 Negrito 

In Colliefs Weekly, for May 13, 1899 is a picture of a Tinguian 
bowman of the Philippine Islands. The release shown is distinctly 
Mediterranean, two fingered. 

In photographs of the marvellous ruins at Angkor, Cambogia, 
I found the figure of an archer drawing the bow and the release is 
plainly Mediterranean. These ruins date back to the ninth century. 
One might have looked for a Mongolian release. When I first defined 
the Mongolian release I supposed it was strictly limited to Asiatic 
nations. Dr. Felix von Luschan, Director of the Ethnological 
Museum of Berlin, in a letter to me dated July 16, 1891 announced 
the discovery of the Mongolian release in Africa. The following is 
an extract from his letter, '' I am sending you a paper model of a quite 
new form of arrow release. It came to the Museum some days ago. 
I will have it photographed and published in the Transactions of our 

29 



Anthropological Society, but it will be several months before it comes 
out, and I want you to know it as soon as possible. Our specimens 
came from the Wootah people (interior of Kameroun, West Africa) 
and were brought here by Lieut. Morgen. You might best call 
them rings for the metacarpus although they are not round. They 
consist of a small thin board of hard wood from four to five millimeters 
in thickness. This board is bent near its middle so as to form a yoke, 
both sides remaining quite parallel and being held together by a thin 
leather string, which may be tightened or loosened according to the 
size of the hand which is to enter. The hand enters with all four 
fingers, the forefinger on the side of the round angle, the little finger 
on the open side, naturally the broad end which is generally orna- 
mented and comes on the dorsum manus. I hope the description 
is plain enough so that you may understand -this mar- 
vellous kind of release. It is by far the most powerful 
I ever heard of, because you engage the whole hand 
and not only one or two fingers, and still the instant 
of loosing the arrow is exceedingly delicate and smooth. 
I think that when one has once seen this release one 
will find it preferable to all others, according to the 
Fig. 28 form of their bows and the immense force they can 

employ. The Wootah have also quite enormous leather bracelets for 
the protection of the bow hand. A section of such a bracelet would 
have the form you see here (Fig. 28) only the small ovoid part forms 
the real bracelet, the rest is a hollow cone of thick black leather which 
is also ornamented with much care and taste." The Transactions 
of the Berlin Society of Anthropology published his paper on the ''Bend- 
ing of the Bow," a free translation of a portion of which is given in 
the end of this paper in an appendix. 

I have already called attention to the fact that in indistinct rock 
sculpture or drawings the attitude of the hand resembles more or less 
a closed fist, while in the Mongolian release the fingers appear to be 
bent downward, the back of the hand being uppermost. In a stone 
sculpture of a Hittite archer discovered by Dr. Luschan, and with 

30 




his permission figured by Mr. Longman in ''Badminton's Archery," 
p. 67, the attitude of the hand indicates the MongoHan release. This 
figure was discovered in Asia Minor. The expression on the face of this 
Hittite figure recalls Roger Ascham's description in his Toxophilus, 
written in 1544, of his squad of awkward bowmen. Among other 
grotesque expressions, he says, ''Some make a face with wry thing theyr 
mouth as though they were doing you wotte what." (Fig. 29). 

Mr. Rudolph Virchow permitted me to make a drawing of a 




Fig. 29 Hittite Archer 

bronze ax in his possession which was dug up in the Caucasus. It was 
believed to date a thousand years, B.C., the age being determined by 
coins associated with it. Upon its face was an incised outline of an 
archer of which I made a rubbing. Both hands were upon the string 
but the outline was so faint and so roughly drawn that it was impossi- 
ble to determine the method of release; the bow was very short but 
certainly not Mongolian. The peculiar head-dress or helmet may be 
identified by some classical archaeologist. 

31 



Mr. F. W. Gookin, of Chicago, has kindly sent me a copy of a 
Persian archer from Alfred Maskell's ''Hand book of Russian 
Art and Art Objects in Russia." The archer is deHcately engraved 
on an ancient silver bowl of Sassanian workmanship in the Hermitage 
Museum, Petrograd. Mr. Gookin, in a letter, says ''The description 
of the bowl which is very meagre states that it bears an inscription in 
Pehlir characters (the ancient writing used in Persia under the dynasty 
of the Sassanians) which has not been deciphered, the date therefore 
is uncertain, but from a comparison with a monument known under 
the name of Takt-i Bostan situated near the modern town of Kerman- 
schat, which was executed during the reign of Bahran Kermanschat 




Fig. 30 Sassanian 

(A. D. 389-399) it is supposed to have been made about the same 
period." Mr. Gookin's exquisite drawing is difficult to reproduce 
on account of the delicacy of the lines. He has made an enlarged 
copy of the right hand showing clearly the Mongolian release (Fig. 30). 
The thumb is seen curving up and the forefinger is locked over the end 
of the thumb. The bow is strictly Mongolian in character and hence 
a composite bow. This evidence of the Mongolian release establishes 
a date showing at least how early the method was introduced from 
China, for unquestionably being Aryan, in still earlier times the Medi- 
terranean, and before this the primary release must have been used. 
The most complete and satisfactory description of an arrow 
release, and all details of an archer's practice is given by Saxton 
T. Pope in the University of California Publications in American 

32 



Anthropology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 3. In this Memoir, entitled 
*'Yahi Archery," Mr. Pope gives the results of a study of the last 
survivor of a tribe of Indians with whom Mr. Pope associated for 
three years. The author says, "The present paper is an attempt to 
present the facts concerning the archery of one tribe, the Yahi or Deer 
Creek Indians of north central California, the most southerly divi- 
sion of the Yanan stock as represented in the person of its last survi- 
vor, ISHI, who lived from 1911 to 1916 at the University of CaHfornia." 
Mr. Pope lived with Ishi for three years, hunted with him in the 
woods and watched him as he fabricated his bows and arrows, illus- 
trating all the details in his paper. A colored plate is given of 18 
arrowheads made from flint and obsidian. The incredible precision 
and delicacy in the making of these arrowheads almost exceeds belief. 
Mr. Pope's * 'Memoir" is really a monograph of the archery of a single 
tribe. In shooting, the bow was held in a horizontal position with the 
back of the hand downward, the arrow resting on the bow between 
the thumb and forefinger. Mr. Pope says, **The arrow release was a 
modification of that known as the Mongolian type, that is he 'drew' the 
bow with the right thumb flexed beneath the string. On the thumb 
nail he laid the end of the middle finger, to strengthen the hold. The 
index finger, completely flexed, rested on the arrow to keep it from 
slipping from the string. The extremities of the feathers, being near 
the nock, were neatly folded along the shaft in the grip of these fingers, 
to prevent them from being ruffled." The outline, (Fig. 31) , traced from 
his drawing clearly illustrates the position of the fingers. I do not 
regard this release as a modification of the Mongolian release but a 
new and distinct form, its only resemblance is seen in drawing the string 
with the thumb, the thumb-ring, which is invariably .used in the Mon- 
golian release, is absent. It is a distinct type and as Mr. Pope is the 
discoverer of it I leave it to him to name this new species. Mr. Pope 
says that *'ISHi knew of several releases, saying that certain other 
tribes used them. The primary type, that where the arrow butt is 
gripped between the thumb and the flexed forefinger, he said certain 
Indians used, and it seemed to be a criterion of strength." The most 

33 



extraordinary feature of ISHi's use of the bow is that on the discharge 
of the arrow the bow is made to revolve in the hand as in the Japanese 
practice. He says, '' When the arrow left the string, at the moment of 
release, the bow revolved, or turned over completely, in his hand, so that 
the back of the bow was toward him." The Japanese are the only 
people who cause the bow to revolve in the hand except those who use 
the stone bow. In this release no arm guard is required and Mr. Pope 
said ISHi ''never used a wrist guard or, bracer, on his left arm to protect 
it from the string, although he nearly always pulled up his shirt sleeve. 




Fig. 31 Yahi California 



This was to avoid striking any clothing with the string, which would 
check the flight of the arrow. At times the string did strike his fore- 
arm, and bruise it, and after prolonged shooting his left wrist was often 
sore and ecchymosed." 

It is a curious linguistic coincidence that the name ISHi is identical 
to a Japanese word, meaning stone, and the first syllable of his tribal 
name, Yahi, Ya, is the Japanese word for arrow. 

In gathering material for a chapter on archers' thumb-rings I 
made hasty sketches of these objects in European museums as opportu- 

34 



nity offered. On writing up these notes I was amazed at the scant liter- 
ature on the subject.* With the exception of Dr. Felix von Lus- 
chan's paper on African thumb-rings in which he illustrates two from 
Africa and a new type from Korea, I found only a few archers' rings 
figured. In Meyrick's ** Ancient Armour," 1842, is figured a ring 
accredited to Persia. Hansard's ''Archery," 1845, copies it and in 
my ** Ancient and Modern Methods of Arrow Release," 1885, I repro- 
duced it from Meyrick's work. I may add that the figure bears but 
little resemblance to the archer's thumb-ring, doubtless owing to poor 
drawing. In a work entitled ''Projectile-Throwing Engines of the 
Ancients," with a treatise on the Turkish and other oriental bows, by 



*"The stfin, or thumb-rings, before alluded to, are one of the distinctions of an Oriental 
archer. Englishmen, it is well known, draw the bowstring with their first three fingers; 
the Flemings, with the first and second only; but neither use the thumb at all. The 
Asiatic method is the reverse of this. There the bowman draws altogether with his 
thumb, the forefinger bent in its first and second joint, being merely pressed on one side 
of the arrow nock, to secure it from falling. In order to prevent the flesh from being 
torn by the bowstring, he wears a broad ring of agate, cornelian, green marble, ivory, 
horn, or iron, according to his rank and means. Upon the inside of this, which projects 
half an inch, the string rests when the bow is drawn; on the outside it is only half that 
breadth; and, in loosing the arrow, he straightens his thumb, which sets the string free. 
These rings, with a spare string, are usually carried in a small box, suspended at the bow- 
man's side; but from habit, many retain them constantly upon the hand, for ornament 
as well as use. 

Consistent with the splendour of their other appointments, the sefin worn by those 
dark-eyed houris, whose feats we have so recently been contemplating, are adorned with 
all the cunning of the jeweller's art. A stone called jadde, crystal, jasper, and even gold, 
inlaid with stones of varied hue, glitter in the sunbeams as each snowy hand strains up 
the silken bowstring. A quilted half sleeve of crimson velvet, or fine cloth, thickly 
embroidered with gold flowers, protects the arm from being bruised by the cord in its 
return. Did not a very curious relic, recently come to light, prove Chaucer's 'gai bracer' 
to be a purely English fashion, we might imagine he was describing one of these. The 
weight of the gold in one which I wore upon my arm for a short time was remarkable; 
it probably amounted to three or four ounces." Hansard Book of Archery, p. 136. 

In no other country in the world has the practice of archery survived as in England. 
The Royal Toxophilite Society of London and many other archery Societies in England 
were founded in the 17th and 18th centuries. England may claim the greatest number 
of books on archery. With this supremacy in the archery field it is strange to find so 
brief an article on the subject in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. The word archer's 
ring does not appear. Its meagre bibliography makes no mention of Hansard's classical 
book with its steel engravings. In some unaccountable way it records my "Ancient and 
Modern Methods of Arrow Release" Essex Institute Bulletin, Salem, Mass., 1885, as 
follows: Archery, Ancient and Modem, E. S. Morse, Worcester, Mass. 1792. 

35 



Sir Ralph Paine-Gallway, 1907, an archer's ring is figured on a hand 
supposed to represent its attitude. The ring is on the thumb upside 
down and the attitude of the hand is entirely wrong. Most detailed 
and elaborate descriptions and illustrations are, however, given of the 
catapult, balista, trebuchet and other ancient engines of war. 

Dr. Berthold Laufer, in his memoir on Jade (Field Museum of 
Natural History, Anthropological Series, Vol. X.) figures an archer's 
thumb-ring from a tomb of the Han period. It is flattened on 
one side, the flattened surface being slightly rounded. Mr. Laufer 
in quoting from a Chinese book by Wu Ta-Cheng, says: ''These 
thumb-rings are still used in archery and manufactured in Peking from 
the antlers of an elk." ''Wu Ta-Cheng figures also a specimen of 

pure white jade and arrived at the conclusion that this particular 

piece was reserved for Imperial use, on the ground that such rings of 
white jade were permitted to the Emperor only, while those of the 
officials were of ivory." "The mode of wearing the ring may be seen in 
a Chinese illustration given by P. Etienne Zi {Pratique des examens 
militaires en Chine, Shanghai 1896). Father Zi remarks that the most 
prized rings are those made of jade of the Han period, of a white gray 
with red veins and green stripes; those taken from the graves of 
students who have graduated at the time of the military examinations 
are reddish in color, and a notion that they afford protection against 
spirits is attached to them." 

In the Pitt- River's collection. University Museum, Oxford, 
Dr. Henry Balfour called my attention to a white jade ring accredit- 
ed to India which is the only one I have ever seen of its kind. Its pecul- 
iarity consists in having a deep groove on the face of the ring to engage 
the bow string. A blunt projecting ridge is seen on the back of the ring. 
It is probably Persian in origin. Fig. 32. It is somewhat flat in form 
Hke a number of the Persian rings figured in the following plates. 

In volume second of the two huge volumes forming the Catalogue of 
the Bishop Collection of jade a figure is given of an archer's ring, 
brownish in color, with the statement that it was found in an ancient 
tomb of the Han period. 

36 



In Badminton's ''Archery/' Col. H. Waldron, contributes an 
exhaustive bibliography of works on archery including treatises, not 
only books but society reports, magazines and even newspaper articles. 
On an examination of this voluminous list I failed to find any 
reference to an archer's ring. 

Lord Edgarton published ''A Description of India and Oriental 
Armour", in 1896. The volume is illustrated with beautiful colored 





Fig. 32 Thumb ring India (?) 



plates besides many in black. Over one thousand catalogue numbers 
are given, comprising those of the Indian Museum of London, and those 
of his own collection, yet no reference to an archer's ring is mentioned. 
This seems the more strange as I sketched two thumb-rings in the 
Indian Museum. It is true that the collection of the Indian Museum 
has been transferred to the South Kensington Museum, but one should 
have found the rings mentioned in the numbered catalogue in Lord 
Edgarton's book. 

I have sketches of archers' rings from the British Museum accred- 
ited to India. Some of them are beautifully inlaid with rubies and 
emeralds. They showed no sign of wear and were worn only as orna- 
ments. In the work above mentioned it is stated that the swords of 
Persia are generally worn by the Indian Rajahs, and in the same spirit 

37 



the Nabobs of India secured the bejeweled thumb-rings from Persia to 
decorate the person. On the borders of Persia and Tartary the com- 
posite bow and the thumb-ring might have been introduced, but the 
aboriginal bow of India was the long bow. I have already shown that 
the Bhils and other aboriginal tribes of India practiced the Mediterra- 
nean release. 

In the earliest records of India no allusion is made to the thumb- 
ring. Prof. E. Washburn Hopkins, the author of a profound memoir 
on the Hindu Epic going back to Buddhistic times, writes me as fol- 
lows: *'In so far as I know about the matter the Hindu archer wore 
'hand-guards' and 'finger-guards' (talatrana and anguitrana respec- 
tively) and the latter may have been in ring shape, but they are spoken 
of as made of iguana skin, not of metal. The warriors all wore 'finger- 
guards' as protection from the bow string. {Jour. Am. Oriental Soc, 
Vol. XIII, pp. 304 and 308.) Rings are for seals, but metal rings for 
bow-men are not mentioned." 

It is significant that the ancient people of India used finger-guards 
made of iguana skin, in other words, leather tips for the fingers, as used 
by all European archers today, and shows that these ancient people 
practiced the same release that is used by the aboriginal tribes of 
India at the present time. 

Having appealed to Indian classics for information about the 
arrow release of the early people we turn to Chinese classics and find 
in the ancient writings of China indisputable evidences of the use of the 
thumb-ring. In the Shi King, or book of ancient Chinese poetry the 
following allusions are made to the use of the thumb-ring, which was 
also called a thimble, and a pan chi, or "finger regulator." "With 
archer's thimble at his girdle hung," and again "Each right thumb 
wore the metal guard." 

In the Chinese Chrestomathy, translated by E. C. Bridgman, the 
rules for archery gives, for the eyes: "Never look at the thumb-ring," 
and "The thumb-ring is made of ivory and fitted to the thumb of the 
right hand; by it the string is held and the bow bent." In these two 
records we learn that in ancient times these rings were made of metal 

38 



and ivory. From the above consideration I cannot find any evidence 
that archers' rings were made in India and those objects in European 
museums and in private collections labeled as such were probably made 
in Persia or in Turkey. Hansard (p. 136) in a foot-note quotes another 
author as saying, ''One of the early Turkish Sultans occupied his 
leisure in manufacturing these rings ''distributing them as presents 
among his favorites and adds that the carnelian thumb-rings may be 
easily procured in the bazaars of Constantinople. 

An invariable accompaniment of the Mongolian release is the 
thumb-ring. This may be made of bronze, iron, brass, ivory, deer- 
horn, jade, agate, carnelian and glass. There are two distinct types of 
thumb-rings; one type is cylindrical, long, thick, rarely ornamented. 
This type belongs strictly to China; the other type is shorter, oblate, 
never cylindrical, one side flaring and in profile resembling, more or less 
the visor of a cap. This type is found in Persia, Turkey, Asia Minor 
and Syria. The horn-ring of the Koreans belongs to this type, the 
flaring part being greatly elongated. The Persian rings of jade are 
occasionally inlaid with gold, or v/ith emeralds and rubies, or, when of 
metal, with incised floral designs. The jade rings beautifully inlaid 
with gems show no signs of wear, they have never been used and were 
worn as ornaments to the person. In the same way the Japanese inro, 
or medicine box, of the Japanese, at first a simple and serviceable box 
for stomachics became finally a marvel of gold lacquer work and was 
worn as an ornament by Daimios and wealthy Samurai. 

A very old ring of the flaring type was dug up by Dr. Felix von 
LuscHAN four hours out from Damascus, between that city and Palmyra. 
He graciously gave it to me remarking that it was an unicum. Having 
reason for believing that the Hittites used the Mongolian release and 
the region in which this was found coming well within Hittite territory, 
is it possible that this ring might prove to be a Hittite ring? The ring 
is of bronze and deeply worn and marks of a scroll design coarsely 
engraved is seen on its face, though nearly obliterated by wear, yet 
enough remains to show that the design is bi-symmetrical. My daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Russell Robb, endeavoured to interpret the intentions of 

39 



the artist, and the enlarged drawing here given with the ring (Fig. 33) 
is the result. If her interpretation is correct it may aid in ascertaining 
the age and provenance of the object. 









Fig. 33 Ancient metal thumb ring Asia Minor 

I am not able to find distinguishing differences between those 
rings marked Persia and those marked Turkey; it would seem, however, 
that the highly decorated ones were made in Persia when one considers 
the gorgeous swords with bejeweled handles known as Persian are worn 
by Indian Rajahs. In the illustrations to follow the orginal labeling 
will be preserved, bearing in mind, however, that those marked India 
were probably Persian in origin. 

At the Royal Toxophilite Society of London, where I had the 
pleasure of shooting with Mr. Longman, I found in the collection of the 
society some archery implements presented by Mumford Effendi, 
Secretary of the Embassy, from the Sublime Porte in 1794. Among 
these objects was an ivory thumb-ring (Fig. 34). A curious leather 
flap issues from the base of the ring to prevent the string from slipping 
off the ring into the angle of the thumb formed by the bent joint. In 
the National Germanic Museum at Nuremberg there was a Turkish 
thumb-ring of ivory with a similar leather attachment. The date of 
this ring was marked 1683 (Fig. 35). The guide book of the Museum 
stated that the Turkish objects were secured at the raising of the seige 



40 



of Vienna which had been taken by the Turks and retaken by German 
and Polish armies under the command of General John Sobiesky. 
A tent also in the collection belonged to the Grand Vizier Kara Musta- 
PHA. The bow was typically Mongolian. The arrow had four barbs 
and was beautifully made. It is interesting to observe that a time 
space of one hundred and eleven years separates the two rings above 
figured and yet the free border of the leather flaps are identical in 
shape. An ivory Turkish ring of a later date, in the collection of 







Fig. 34 Thumb ring Turkey 



Fig. 35 Thumb ring Turkey 



Mr. George C. Stone, of New York city, has a leather edge cut 
squarely across (Fig. 36). In the case with these objects at the Nurem- 
burg Museum was a drawing showing the attitude of the hand in hold- 
ing the bow. A semi-tube of horn was grasped against the bow; a 
device made to enable the archer to pull the arrow within the bow in 
flight shooting, this was turned outward as if its purpose was to guide 
the arrow. The thumb -ring which should, of course, be on the right 
thumb is here shown on the thumb of the left hand upside down and 
backward ! I informed the Director of the errors in the drawing and 



41 



mention it now for the purpose of showing how Httle attention had 
been paid to these minor details. As this was nearly thirty-five years 
ago these errors have probably long since been corrected. 

While the Japanese practiced the Mongolian release I have never 
seen a thumb-ring, ancient or modern, in Japan. Instead of a ring they 
use a glove in which the thumb is greatly enlarged and grooved to admit 
the string. The glove may have the first and second fingers or all the 
fingers, the palm and back of the hand being uncovered. Mr. George 
C. Stone, to whom I am indebted for the privilege of drawing a number 
of archers' rings in his collection, in a letter to me, says, *'I presume 




Fig. 36 Thumb ring Turkey 

you have a collection of archers' gloves with re-enforced thumbs, if not 
I have them with two and three fingers and one pair of full gloves. 
The latter are peculiar, the right thumb has an extra thickness of 
leather on the inside where the bow string would bear and the second 
and third fingers on both gloves are of a very much softer and lighter 
colored leather than the rest of the gloves. Both have ventilated 
openings in the palms." The Japanese archer's glove figured in the 
Badminton Archery is decorated with leaves on the thumb side. 
The Japanese archer's glove figured in my memoir represents the 
typical form in Japan. 

In closing I wish to express my obligations to Mr. Lawrence 
Waters Jenkins for hunting up important references; to George 
C. Stone Esq., of New York, for permission to figure a number of 
interesting archers' rings from his collection; to Dr. W. P. Wilson, 

42 



Director of the Commerical Museum of Philadelphia, who while 
Chairman of the Philippine Government Board, St. Louis Exposition 
enabled me to study the Negritos from the Philippine Islands; to 
Mr. Kojiro. Tomita for translations of Chinese characters and to 
those whose names are mentioned in the pages who helped me in various 
ways without whose kind assistance this contribution to the subject 
could not have been made. 

The following plates represent archers' rings drawn natural size, 
many of them hasty sketches. The first three plates are supposed to be 
Turkish and Persian rings, some of them attributed to India. Mr. 
George C. Stone informs me that on his last visit to the South Kens- 
ington Museum he saw a collection of possibly fifteen jade rings inlaid 
with rubies and emeralds, labeled India. If made in India it would be 
interesting to find out precisely in what place in India they were made. 
In the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts is an archer's 
thumb-ring of green jade with incised floral design in gold and rubies, 
a band of gold encircling each ruby. It bears no sign of wear and 
must have been worn purely as an ornament for the hand. It is 
exquisite in its beauty and workmanship. See plate III, Fig. 5. 
The last two plates represent archers' rings from China. 




White Jade, Ethnological Museum, Leyden, Persia 



43 



APPENDIX 



Transactions of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, 

Ethnology and Primeval History 

Meeting of July 18, 1891 



(P. 670. Paper on Bending the Bow. M. Felix von Luschan) ; 
(Figs. 10 and 12 are omitted in the following extracts) 

After considering the primary, secondary, tertiary, Mediterranean 
and Mongolian methods of bending (drawing) the bow, and after con- 
sidering a variety of arrangements for protecting fingers, hands and 
arms against a recoil of the bowstring the author returns (p. 674) to 

the Mongolian method with thumb ring 
in the right hand which it requires, he 
instances such rings from Syria, Korea and 
China and then says: It is very surpris- 
ing that we should also have knowledge of 
such a ring in Africa. In the Royal Mus- 
eum for Ethnology at Berlin there is an 
iron thumb ring (Fig. 7, p. 675) from the 
Benue country, collected by R. Flegel and 
designated by him as a bow-bending ring. 
In the face of such a statement, even if so far it has remained an 
isolated one it cannot be doubted that the Mongolian method is known 
also in Africa, for it is only with this method that a thumb ring can 
occur. I, myself, have a small ring with a long lateral spur (projec- 
tion) made of some Hght-colored oxidized metallic alloy which Ernst 
Marno brought from the Giraffe River and designated as a ring for 
bending the bow (Fig. 8a). As Marno could not at the time explain 




Fig. 7 



44 



to me how it was possible to bend a bow with such a ring, I took no 
further notice of his statement and considered the ring to be a knuckle- 
duster. But there is in the Berlin Museum, as I saw only recently, a 
horn ring shaped quite similarly only larger, which is also designated 
as a ring for bending the bow (Fig. 8b) Although the way of using 
the ring is not clear as yet, nevertheless this furnishes now, after 
twenty years, an entirely unexpected confirmation of Marno's old 
statement and we will probably be constrained to assume also for the 
upper Nile regions the occurrence, an isolated occurrence perhaps, of 
the Mongolian method. The actual manner of using these thumb- 




Fig. 8a 



Fig. 8b 



rings with lateral spur remains occult, just as it has to be made clear 
how in Korea this diverging form has there arisen and maintained 
itself, alongside of the form usual and typical there. Aside of the five 
above mentioned methods of bending the bow, Morse enumerates a 
few others of less importance which are partly only individual methods 
and of which only one could be explained here, the bending with both 
hands. The archer lies on his back pressing both feet firmly against 
the bow. I, myself, have seen Bushmen shoot in this way, but the 
impression this made upon me was rather that of an artist's feat (an 
exhibition performance than that of a typical use.) On the other 

45 



hand I am today in the position to communicate a hitherto entirely 
unknown method of bending the bow, the Wute Method. For the 
knowledge of it we are indebted to 1st Lieutenant Morgen, the 
dashing and lively successor of Captain Kund, who observed this 
method with the Wute people in the back country of Kamerun and 
brought several pieces as ocular demonstration to Berlin. Unlike all 
other people of whom we know so far the Wute bend the bow not at 
all with the fingers but with the middle of the hand. For this they 




Fig. 9 



use a ring which consists as Figure 9 shows of a small thin piece of 
board, bent like a bow (of a necktie) the ends of which may be drawn, 
more or less, together according to the size of the hand, by means of a 
leather thong (strip). This ring is worn in such a way that it is drawn 
over the hand to its middle with the closed end towards the radius and 
the open end towards the ulna. The string of the bow is caught and 
drawn tight with the edge of the radial side, whilst the thumb keeps 
the arrow in the desired position. 



46 



In succession to these hand rings follow, of course, the West 
African daggers with hollow handles (Figs. 10 and 11) which have so 
far become known to us (as existing) in the protectorate of Togo the 
Wute country and the Benue regions, especially (specifically) from the 
latter. Staudinger and Hartert brought already, 1886, a long 
dagger knife (Fig. 10) of the kind which they found with the Kadarra 
and Korro tribes where these knives serve as well as a hand weapon 
for defense, as for the quicker bending of the bow, by pressing the 
handle against the string. 

This statement is, of course, not quite clear, as with such aid one 
may gain rather in power, but hardly in quickness, nevertheless it 
results without dispute from this statement, that de facto also these 
tribes have the same manner of bending the bow, which since then 




Fig. 11 



has been recognized more distinctly a little farther south by Lieu- 
tenant MoRGEN. But the Berlin Ethnological Museum has very 
numerous specimens of quite similar knives from the Togo Protec- 
torate brought thence by staff-physician Dr. Wolf and by Dr. 
BuTTNER and to the latter we are also indebted for the names Ssegara 
and Sama, both of which, as it seems, are common in the Sugu lan- 
guage, for the knives. It is true both travelers have considered them 
only as such (knives) and do not mention that they are also used for 
bending the bow, but there seems to be no doubt that they, just as 
the similar knives in the Benue countries, serve both purposes, at all 
events we have the specific information as regards the knife, (Fig. 11) 
from the Wute countries, that it is also used for bending the bow 
therefore besides the above described wooden middle-hand-rings, 

47 



which serve the same purpose. To examine which is here the original 
and which the derived forms would be a difficult and perhaps also a 
useless task, at all events already the above consideration shows — 
and practical attempt confirms — that this method of bending the 
bow, whether by the aid of the wooden hand-ring, or by that of the 
iron dagger-handle, is an extremely powerful method. As a matter 
of fact it is far and away superior to every other method, not only on 
account of the ease with which the full strength of the whole arm is 
brought to bear upon the string, but also on account of the extraor- 
dinary delicacy with which the arrow is released at the decisive 
moment. 

The enormously powerful effect produced by this (bending) ring 
finds its counterpart in a protective apparatus for the left hand, which 
exceeds in its dimensions everything existing before. It consists 
(Fig. 12) of a strip of leather tightly fitting the wrist, open and arranged 
for tying on the ulnar side, and carrying on the thumb side an irreg- 
ularly conical erection of 10-15 cm. high also made of string or leather 
(hide) colored black and generally embellished with geometric orna- 
mentations. This peculiar (or peculiarly) a symmetrical wrist band 
presents therefore to the rebounding string two inclined planes which 
completely paralyse even the hardest blow. 

The pursuit of the subordinate (minor) and apparently unim- 
portant inquiry as to the method of bending the bow used by different 
peoples results thus in the disclosing of an unexpected manifoldness 
(variety) and furnishes inducment in various directions for further 
reflection. The material collected so far contains, however, by far 
too many gaps if the above communication concerning the Wute 
method fills one of these in a manner so entirely sui generis^ the other 
gaps appear only the more lamentable. I may, therefore, be allowed 
to express the hope that future travellers will pay more attention to 
this question than has been done hitherto, and that the excellent, 
observation of Lieutenant Morgen wdll by no means remain the 
last one of its kind. 



48 



PLATE I 

Figure 1 White jade, inlaid with rubies and emeralds. Franks' 
Coll. Attributed to India. x 

2 White jade, deeply inlaid with gold. George C. Stone 

Coll. Persia. 

3 Bronze; design roughly cut. Franks' Coll. Bought at 

Smyrna. 

4 Thin brass, overlapping behind, design roughly cut. 

British Museum. No locality given. 

5 White jade, inlaid with rubies and emeralds. Franks'. 

Coll. No locality given. 

6 Iron, inlaid with copper and brass. British Museum. 

Persia. 



PLATE I 









PLATE II 

Figure 1 White jade, with floral design in slight relief. George C. 
Stone Coll. Persia. 17th century. 

2 White jade. British Museum. Persia. 

3 Bone. British Museum. Persia. 

4 Carnelian. British Museum. Persia. 

5 & 6 Carnelian. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. 

These are recorded in the old catalogue as follows : 

"Tradescantianum, or Collection of Rarities preserved 
at South Lambert, near London, by John Tradescant, 
London. MDCLVI." 



PLATE II 









PLATE III 

Figure 1 Bone, closely inlaid with minute bits of brass with a band 
of larger round bits of brass. Franks' Coll. Bought at 

Smyrna. 

2 Bone. Failed to record nature of inlay. British Museum. 

Siberia? 

3 White jade with slight keel on back. George C. Stone 

Coll. 

4 Ivory, simple decoration of circles and leaves. George C. 

Stone Coll. 

5 Green jade inlaid with gold and rubies. Boston Museum 

of Fine Arts. 

6 White jade. George C. Stone Coll. 



PLATE III 












PLATE IV 

Figure 1 Greenish variegated jade. Peabody Museum, Salem. 

2 Deer horn. Peabody Museum, Salem. 

3 and 4 Deer horn. From a group of five deer horn rings. 

Geo. C. Stone Coll. I have selected the largest and 
smallest to figure. 

5 Ivory, with double character for *'joy'' in slight relief, 

Geo. C. Stone Coll. 

6 Dark brown substance, ''neither wood, metal or stone." 

Bamboo design, sHghtly etched, silver lined. Geo. C. 
Stone Coll. 

7 Weathered jade, resembling jade from old tombs. Geo. C. 

Stone Coll. 

8 Steatite. Peabody Museum, Salem. 

9 Stone, characters in ancient form in slight relief. They 

read ''Speak with sincerity." It is from the Analects of 
Confucius, Book I, Chap. 7. Peabody Museum, Salem. 

10 Marble. Peabody Museum, Salem. 



PLATE IV 




I 




*i ^ 





^. 



!1^®1 



^ 







\o 



PLATE V 

Figure 1 White jade, Hydra in slight relief, flattened on one side. 
Franks' Coll. 

2 White jade, abruptly flattened on one side, landscape in 

slight relief. Geo. C. Stone Coll. 

3 White jade, abruptly flattened on side, the flat portion 

somewhat discolored. The flattened side, from its 
appearance, represents the original surface of the block 
of jade from which it was made. Geo. C. Stone Coll. 

4 Amber-colored glass, deep yellow. Abruptly flattened on 

one side; flattened side slightly curved. Peabody 
Museum, Salem. 



PLATE V 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 726 919 7 



